Treasury holds the key to door

The core of the admissions problem is that families can improve their children's chances by paying for them to attend private schools, with smaller classes, better-paid staff and more lavish facilities.

Any student at such a school has a better chance of getting good A levels and hence of attending the best universities. Abolishing private schools is not the answer, but those who pay for such advantages should perhaps bear the full cost at universities. Scholarships to direct-grant secondary schools were dependent on the recipient having attended a state school. The same principle could be applied to universities.

Jack Goody. St John's College. Cambridge.